The Politics of Petulance

Senate Republicans on Thursday again refused to allow the nomination of a highly qualified judicial nominee to come up for a full vote. Their use of the filibuster is by now all too familiar, and the latest casualty is Patricia Ann Millett, whom President Obama nominated in June, along with two other people, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

There are no questions about Ms. Millett’s qualifications for a seat on what is generally regarded as the most powerful court in the country after the Supreme Court. She is one of the nation’s leading appellate lawyers, has worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations, and has broad bipartisan support.

The problem, as Senate Republicans now claim, is that the court’s workload is too light to justify filling its three vacant seats. This is a transparently bogus argument, and the Republicans know it. The D.C. Circuit’s caseload is essentially unchanged from 2005, when Senate Republicans voted to confirm two of President George Bush’s nominees to the court. But now they accuse President Obama of trying to “pack the court.”

Putting aside the flatly dishonest use of that term, the Republicans’ real concern, as the Senate minority whip, John Cornyn, told reporters this week, is that nominees like Ms. Millett will “tilt the court ideologically in a way that favors the big-government agenda of the Obama administration.” Many are responding to business lobbyists who do not want important commerce cases decided by a judge appointed by Mr. Obama.

The Republicans seem not to accept that Mr. Obama’s job includes nominating judges to the federal appeals courts. Absent extraordinary circumstances, those nominees should get up-or-down votes on their merits, as the majority of Mr. Bush’s D.C. Circuit nominees did.

Before blocking Ms. Millett, the Republicans refused to consider another of Mr. Obama’s highly qualified nominees to the D.C. Circuit, Caitlin Halligan. And right behind Ms. Millett are two more nominees, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins, who is already a federal district judge.

We have called for an end to filibusters of judicial nominations, and for the Senate to change its rules to require votes on all judicial and executive nominees within 90 days. The filibuster has at times been an important tool for the minority to block extremist nominees. Its current abuse, however, is out of control.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, warned before the vote Thursday that “if Republican senators are going to hold nominations hostage without consideration of their individual merit, drastic measures may be warranted.”

It is well past time to make good on that threat, and force the Senate to do its job.